Last year, I included “The Jerk” on my project’s film list but got cold feet before screening it. Fresh off of “The Godfather Part II”, I think I questioned if “The Jerk” was iconic enough to be on this list and, at the midnight-hour, swapped it out. That said, I felt a bit guilty for not giving this Steve Martin flick its due and made sure to correct the error, this year. And I can now say that I was wrong—this film is brilliant and ticks all the boxes!
Comedy plot summaries are a bit zany, but here goes nothing: “The Jerk” is about Navin Johnson (Steve Martin), a white man who was born a poor, black child (bear with me). He hits the road and gets a job at a gas station where he fixes a man’s glasses by attaching a handle on the front (over the nose). Then, a gun wielding mad-man chases him to a carnival where he gets a job and begins having sex with a daredevil motorcyclist. That is, until he meets and falls in love with Marie (Bernadette Peters). Navin then learns that, as the inventor of the Opti-Grab eyeglasses (remember the gas station?), he is rich. But as quick as his meteoric rise would come his downfall and Navin concludes the film by returning to his family in Mississippi.
“The Jerk” is a comedy, fully and completely. It employs nearly every comedic genre and technique in the book and I loved it for it. From slapstick to wordplay, naiveté, lunacy, parody, satire, musical comedy, and visual gags, this film worked overtime to be funny. And it was. Really funny! There’s even a brilliant, 4th-wall breaking moment with directer Carl Reiner that both resolves the film’s unresolvable plot and shows the lengths this movie goes to get a laugh. It was like a Mel Brooks film but slightly more refined (and with a lot of heart).
Which in a way, brings us back to Steve Martin growing up a poor, black child. Since I paused to criticize a racist caricature last week, I find the need to share that this joke was just different than that. Navin loves his family, follows their advice, and sends home as much of his earnings as he can. For as crazy as the film is, there's hardly a mean bone in it; it's kind of an allegory that if you remember your home, you will never be without one. I loved this film and hope you give it a shot!